How I Came to Love the Student Union

So, 2 ¾ years ago I arrived at university. The Head Girl in me, the grinning super-enthusiastic eager beaver that I try so hard to repress – play it cool, Green – was screaming at my outer cool cat to sniff out the students’ union the moment I arrived in Southampton and sign myself up to any committee position going. Dive in, lady.

But I refrained: I made pals with a good bunch in my halls, I went out most nights, I got very familiar with Jeremy Kyle and a game called ‘Ring of Fire’ and I did very little else. Life is sweet. Life is laidback. Life lacks responsibility. ...I hate it. I allow my bossy boots “get involved” attitude to run free and I decide to head up to the students’ union one evening, to see what kind of shindig they can throw. Nobody wants to be part of a gang that can’t throw a decent party. So rock up I do, ready to find sabbatical officers, introduce myself, let commitments to a body of people wash over me. The thrills!

It didn’t quite pan out as thus. The union night out back then was known as ‘Kinki’ and kinky it was not. ‘Tacki’, ‘ugli’, ‘disgustingi’, perhaps. Inside the main dance floor area were cross-eyed drunk girls swapping clothes in a hurry on a plinth, while slobbering freshers ogled and jeered. Oh great, a students’ union that endorses casual misogyny – just the kind of people I love to volunteer for! Not so much. I was put off, that’s for sure. I thought that this big union night out represented the body of people that volunteered for the union and I really wanted nothing to do with them, thanks very much. I went back to Jezza Kyle and stayed put for another year.

During my first year I became heavily involved in the Feminist Society; I was offered challenging debate, great company and an outlet for many thoughts and ideas I had started to form during secondary school. I felt like I fit in there. I felt this group was the antithesis to the union: a group of men and women who took representation into their own hands, stood for dignity and respect and seriously kicked arse. As I was preparing for second year, I ran for Society President and with a small committee, and I lead the Society into a new year at Southampton. What I didn’t predict was how much bureaucracy I would have to face with the Union. Ah, SUSU, we meet again.

I sensed that things weren’t perhaps quite how I had initially envisioned. The staff I worked with to procure FemSoc a budget and the necessary paperwork were wonderfully helpful and constantly available to my questions and quibbles. Were these the same people that sanctioned club nights where “GET YOUR T*TS OUT!” was the staple start to a conversation? I was sceptical, so I remained at a distance. Throughout the year I began to realise that a Students’ Union is not a small homogenous body of people who represent the masses: the masses are the union.

Every student represents the students’ union. The volunteers and staff were just friendly faces who helped you achieve what you wanted to get done. And those people can’t be held accountable for how every student behaves; I was just unfortunate to associate sloppy student behaviour with the union building that it was happening within. What I also began to realise was that if I wanted to shape or change the culture of my students’ union, it would be easier to do so from the inside. I ran for a union trustee position ‘Equality and Diversity Officer’ and this enabled me to fight for equality from within; I was able to shape constitution, start campaigns (with a tasty budget!) and work with a bunch of pretty wonderful people. People who don’t get involved within the union often call it a ‘clique’; as someone who used to be on the outside, I can safely say that it’s not a clique – it’s a family. It’s tight-knit and intimate, sure, but it’s forever expanding and adapting and letting new people in.

I had such a great year of being an elected Union Officer that this year I ran to be a Sabbatical Officer. This is one of six people who are the figureheads of the union. They get paid full time wages to do nothing but sort out students’ lives. ...What a nightmare huh? I care a lot about human rights and campaigning for fair treatment for all so I figured Vice President Welfare and Communities would probably suit me. And apparently several thousand students would agree: I got elected and now I have a job to look forward to starting in July. And for an English Literature graduate, that’s quite a feat conquered.

I’d thoroughly recommend getting involved in whatever you can at university: volunteering, sport, societies, student activism – whatever it is that gets you excited and can get you to switch off Jeremy Kyle. My involvement has supplemented my degree beautifully; when the work is getting me down, I can take a break by focusing on something fun and productive – organising Diwali celebrations, or International Women’s Day, or writing up a motion to get gender-neutral toilets in the union. I know that sounds horribly dull but the keen bean in me LOVES that stuff. And that’s the point of a union; it nurtured a spark in me (even if at first it was out of sheer indignant horror) and now it’s supporting my future prospects. I’m looking forward to working for the union for a year: 22,000 students, here I come! ... What have I got myself into?